Part 1 - Why I Believe the Apostles' Teaching

I don't know how often you've heard something like the following: "Jesus didn't even teach about something like homosexuality, so who are we to say if it's right or wrong?" This is not a discussion of the homosexual issue, but this was where I most commonly heard this sort of reasoning used in a college classroom. The statement implies that it doesn't really matter whether or not the apostles may have written on this issue - if Jesus didn't explicitly say it, then we don't have the right to confidently say what God views as right or wrong.

I understand that it's easy to see those red words of Jesus on the page and think, "these really are the words of God." This hermeneutic does not overstate the authority of Jesus's words, but instead neglects the fact that the other words of Scripture contain the same authority since they all have the same Author. If the red words mark the words of God, then really everything from Genesis to Revelation should be marked in red! There are numerous verses I could cite to show God's involvement in Scripture. Here is one passage that is rarely quoted but is beautifully specific in its explanation of how God was intimately involved in the development of Scripture:

"We have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
- 2 Peter 1:19-21 (italics mine)

I love that expression "carried along by the Holy Spirit." The beauty of Scripture is not that it has a hodgepodge of uneducated authors who stuck their own opinion onto paper and claimed it as the word God. Instead, Scripture has one Divine Author who used a number of human authors throughout history to write the story of redemption and the Redeemer. I believe that this reason is sufficient in itself to explain the authority of the apostles' teaching. Since the Holy Spirit moved and guided them to write, we can trust their words as being the words of God. However, in case anyone regards this as being too simple a defense I also wanted to give the other big reason that I believe the teaching of the apostles.

Does it really make any sense that someone would regard Jesus' teaching as being authoritative but at the same time ignore the writings of the apostles - those whom He lived and ministered with, taught how to interpret Scripture, and gave them authority to continue His mission on earth? If anyone would be trustworthy to explain all that Jesus taught beyond what is written in the Gospel accounts, it would be men like Peter, John, and Paul (who obviously was not a part of Jesus' pre-resurrection ministry, but was as directly impacted and influenced by Jesus as anyone else in Scripture). Luke 24 talks about how the resurrected Christ personally opened the disciples' minds to be able to understand how to interpret and preach Scripture:

v. 32 - They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

v. 44-48 - Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

When studying history most people view the original source documents as valuable information when trying to understand what a man was really like. If studying Washington, any writing by his closest generals would be priceless. But with Christ, we have made ourselves the authoritative interpreter of what He was really like and what He really meant. The problem stems from understanding history in an evolutionary fashion, which assumes that we're smarter and better now than we were 2,000 years ago, and we are therefore more qualified to explain what Jesus meant and taught than His disciples. Such historical arrogance is not only misinformed, but also dangerous.

Let's also think about this logically- someone says that they believe the words of Jesus but not the words of apostles. Who do they think wrote down the words that are attributed to Jesus? There is no such thing as believing only in the words of Jesus. It's actually believing selectively in the writings of the apostles.

We may have computers, airplanes, air conditioning, and other cool inventions, but as for me, I will trust the words of the apostles in a heartbeat over my own naturally biased method of interpretation that is as far removed from the context in which Jesus taught and lived as can be. When it comes to understanding what Jesus preached and believed beyond the direct quotes of Him in the four gospels, I'll take the inspired words of those he was closest to without thinking twice.

Introducing the Issue: Some Scripture is God-breathed?

This is the introduction to the following two-part response to "red-letter Christians" (RLCs). The first part is called "Why I Believe the Apostles' Teaching," while the second is titled "Just Want to Follow Jesus?"

Allow me just a minute to specify what it is I'm addressing. I am not addressing the political movement led by men such as Tony Campolo or Brian McLaren. Instead, these are two essays discussing a hermeneutic (method of Biblical interpretation) that views Jesus' words (the red words in some Bibles) as authoritative and without error while the rest of Scripture is interpreted as having less authority, being the opinions of ordinary men, or being the production of various unsophsticated cultures that, when compared to the advancements made today, are thought to be obsolete.

This is not a complete defense of the inerrancy of Scripture, but instead a pair of brief essays that I hope will show 1. the reliability and authority of the apostles' teaching in the New Testament, which therefore means we should submit ourselves to their teaching, and 2. how often RLCs apply their selective hermeneutic on the red words they claim to fully believe.

C.S. Lewis said...

"By the way, did you ever meet, or hear of, anyone who was converted from scepticism to a 'liberal' or 'demythologised' Christianity? I think that when unbelievers come in at all, they come in a good deal further [...] A man who first tried to guess 'what the public wants,' and then preached that as Christianity because the public wants it, would be a pretty mixture of fool and knave."

- Letters to Malcolm, 119-120

A New Christian Debate Resource

(This post is a work in progress and will be cleaned up and improved upon in the coming days).
Last updated 5/29

This is something I'm incredibly excited about working to put together. I often enjoy listening to debates more than anything else because it can never be a one-sided argument. Of course, when the Christian debates the atheist I don't side with the atheist; however, a debate presents both sides of the argument and provides the opportunity to hear the Christian response and defense to objections. This is a facet that is not always offered in a sermon since that is not the proper forum for such objections.

Therefore, after realizing that I have not been able to find a site (though it may be out there, I'm not trying to be revolutionary here) that offers audio or video of Christian debates, the following is what I have found on the internet that either has audio or video files. I have listened to many of these debates, but not all of them in their entirety. I don't necessarily agree entirely with every Christian who is represented here, but just hope to provide a resource that will be useful to any who enjoy Christian apologetics and learning by hearing both sides of the argument. I will be adding to this list and updating the post regularly as I come across more debates that are on the internet. I have divided the list into two sections. The first is debates on theology, and focuses more on debates within Christian circles on theological matters such as Calvinism or eternal security of the believer. The second division is broadly labeled as debates proving the existence or nature of God. These are between Christians and and those of other faiths, atheism included. I recognize that this is also a theological matter, so my labels are not entirely accurate, but this was how I deemed it best to divide the categories. Without further delay...

Debates on Christian Theology:

Al Mohler (president of Southern Seminary) and Paige Patterson (president of Southwestern Seminary) "discuss" the matter of Calvinism at the Southern Baptist Convention here.

My reaction: This is one of the best debates out there - Mohler and Patterson present their positions in a clear and respectful fashion. I think pretty much anyone in the SBC should be required to listen to this.

Mark Driscoll debates Dan Corner over the eternal security of the believer here.

My reaction: Good debate - the audio quality is not great, but Driscoll does a good job defending the security of the believer.

Debates on The Existence/ Nature of God:

"The Great Debate" - Greg Bahnsen (Christian apologist) debates well-known atheist, Gordon Stein, here.

My reaction: Excellent - one of the most famous debates out there. Greg Bahnsen is brilliant

John Lennox (Oxford mathematician & Christian Apologist) and Richard Dawkins (Oxford scientist & author of The God Delusion) debate here.

My reaction: This is a great debate between one of the leading Christian apologists and probably the best known atheist of our generation. The worst part of this is the debate format. It doesn't seem like the moderator really let the two talk without interrupting. Having heard Lennox speak at Southeastern chapel, many of his best arguments (especially his conclusion) were cut off as he was getting to them because of time restraints.

A video conversation between Alister McGrath (of Oxford) and Richard Dawkins here.

My reaction: This video format is somewhat awkward. You can see the same interview on YouTube in a series of ten minute videos as well. This is a good video that is more of a conversation than a debate. This comes from Richard Dawkins' website, so it's important to recognize that he is asking the questions to McGrath. Therefore, Dawkins is able to be on the offense throughout the entire discussion - a significant advantage.

Ray Comfort (from The Way of the Master) vs. Ron Barrier (atheist) here attempting to prove/disprove the existence of a Creator.

My reaction: This is a very poor debate, and I've included it only for the sake of completeness. Barrier's arguments are very poor and mostly simple logic that appeal to the emotions of his audience. Comfort isn't too impressive either for the Christian defense...

William Lane Craig (Christian apologist) debates Jamal Badawi (Muslim apologist) at Emory Univeristy. Part of 1 of 11 is below, and the remaining 10 parts are also on YouTube.

More pictures from Acuna, Mexico

We said that we would post more pictures later on. Here are a few more pictures from our mission trip to Acuna, Mexico a few months ago...
A picture of one of the houses in the area.

Here's one of the camp's baseball games in process.

A beautiful Mexican sunset.

This was what it looked like when crossing the border. We are crossing from the U.S. into Mexico, and as you can see, there was no wait to get into Mexico. But on the other side, U.S. border police were sure to check each and every car.

Megan was the camp nurse. As you can see, her services were greatly needed!

There are a good number of thiefs in the area. This is one of the many guard dogs that seemed to be in front of almost every house to let residents know if there's an intruder.

Here's Megan with her host family for the week and her friend Alyson.

And finally, here's the cutest girl I think we've ever seen.

We met John Edwards

So we met John Edwards at the Durham Bulls game last week. Despite him being a former Clemson student (for just a year, I think), a UNC student, and a Democrat, we were able to have a good, brief visit with him.

Lessons learned from my first year at Southeastern Seminary

It's hard to believe, but as I finished my Old Testament II final on Wednesday I also finished my first year of seminary. It has been a wonderful and rewarding experience which has far exceeded Megan and I's expectations. Here's just some quick thoughts on different things I've learned or experienced after my first year...

In the past year I completed classes such as Hermeneutics, Greek I and II, Evangelism, and Theology I. I would say that almost every class has been great, with each professor adding their own twist to the class through their unique personalities. Top professors for the last year have been Dr. Akin (hermeneutics), Dr. Black (Greek I, II and NT II), and Dr. Reid (Evangelism).

I will probably stay away from the "practical" classes for my last two years (by practical I mean classes like counseling, pastoral ministry, etc). It's not that they aren't rewarding, but I've found that seminary is a place to learn things that you could never learn on your own. I found that I probably could have learned as much about counseling by just reading the books that were assigned. If you're serving in a good church you should be learning the practical aspect of ministry there, which will save your seminary electives for classes like the languages.

I came into seminary being strongly discouraged from pursuing anything in the field of apologetics. In the past year I didn't take anything within Christian philosophy because of it, but I have found that my love for apologetics has crept back! In the summer I will be taking a class with Dr. Norman Geisler (more on this later) on Christianity in relation to the other world religions, and in the fall I will take two classes with Dr. Bruce Little: Christian Philosophy and Critical Thinking & Argumentation.

Megan and I could be anywhere two years from now. We came in thinking that we were willing to go anywhere or do anything, but we weren't (at least I wasn't). Many professors here are "afflictors of the comfortable," and they challenge you to look beyond the U.S. to find your place of ministry. Megan and I talk about this often, and we look forward to see where the Lord takes us.

The consistent piece of advice I received coming in was to take professors, not classes. They were right - a class is made or broken by its teacher.

Who would have thought that I would enjoy Greek? I'm on to my third semester this summer...

Half of the education in seminary is interaction with the other students. That's why I strongly feel that being a full-time, on-campus student is a huge advantage, and should be chosen (if possible) over online courses. You hear what people are reading, thinking, experiencing, and who they listen to (sermons).

For the last 18 months Megan has been encouraging me to pursue my PhD after finishing seminary. For the last 14 months or so I strongly disagreed, but am feeling more and more called to continuing my education after graduating from Southeastern. I'm hesitant about this, because I want to make sure this isn't a pride thing, but as of now I see this as a likely next step.

I'm so thankful to be at a "Great Commission" seminary. I had many hesitations about coming to a "confessional seminary", but I am so thankful that we came to Southeastern. God has used it to change me substantially, and developed my heart for the nations.

That's all for now, and if I think of more I'll post them as they come to me...

Chicks Dig the Long Ball

One of the best parts about Youtube is finding old commercials that you remember as a kid. In the words of Greg Maddux, "Hey! We've got Cy Young winners over here!"

A New Family Tradition...

I don't blog often about stuff going on with Megan and I, but something pretty cool happened two days ago that I thought I would share:

C.S. Lewis' 4th book in The Chronicles of Narnia series, Prince Caspian, just opened in theatres this past Friday. I've read the first three in the series but wanted to read this one before seeing the movie. While I was reading on our bed Megan came up and asked what I was reading and jokingly asked if I would read aloud so she could enjoy also. I took her up on her offer read chapter 2 to her, and we followed that up the following night by reading chapter 3 out loud. It looks like we have a pretty cool new tradition on our hands. One of the things our friend, Andy, said he would pray for in our new marriage was developing traditions. We have founded a few (such as the "great Barley fall festival" featuring homemade boiled peanuts) but never any that happened regularly. We've enjoyed this so far, and I think we will enjoy many books in this fashion. On to chapter 4...

Some Thoughts on Worship… (by Matt Thomas)

My great friend, Matt, wrote some brief thoughts about worship music on his blog. He was asked by his home church what to look for in a music pastor, and these are just a few of his thoughts. I think this is only a portion of his report, but he did a great job!

A few months ago, a group of people from my home church asked me to write up some things that I felt were important things to look for in Music Minister. This is an excerpt from what I came up with for them (maybe it’ll be helpful to someone):

This is an outline of qualifications and attributes that I feel are essential and important for quality worship leadership in a Christian church. It should be noted that some of this is my personal preference and/or opinion. I will try to differentiate between what is my preference/opinion and what I feel are absolute essentials for this position.

It is important to recognize music as a form of worship not as the only means of worship. Some people simply do not like music, and this dislike should not be equated with a lack of personal worship from that individual. Worship can take the form of giving, praying, serving, fellowshipping, preaching, encouraging, singing, etc., and it should never be equated with or
referred to strictly as the singing of spiritual songs.

Music is an art form (among many art forms) and can be effectively used to lead people to worship God. Other art forms (dance, visual art, drama, etc.) are also effective (and should be encouraged and promoted by the Church) in leading people to worship God, but music seems to predominate among these art forms in Christian churches because it is very relevant to most people’s lives and because it holds a strong place in Church history. It also involves the use of lyrics which are theologically and spiritually sound and foster a focus on and consideration of the gospel.

It is only after this groundwork for worship has been laid that a church can consider the form of musical worship best suited for their congregation. With this in mind I will share my thoughts on musical worship and the hiring of a Minister of Music.

Musical Worship

Musical Worship should have as its focus the glory and worship of God. Any music intended for worship that deviates from this could possibly be counterproductive to the purpose of
the church. Given this, I will list some purposes and priorities of worship through music:
1. The glory and worship of God.
2. The encouragement of the believer.
3. The teaching of spiritual truths to the believer (theology expressed in lyrics).
4. To foster an environment allowing believers and non-believers to be drawn to God (this can be a type of evangelism to non-believers)

Theological Conclusions from Gal. 5:1-6

I thought I would post the "theological conclusions" portion of my recent term paper for New Testament. As I already mentioned, I did it on Gal. 5:1-6, and this was what I concluded:

It would be irresponsible to emphasize any biblical truth from this text over the exclusive sufficiency of Christ. This truth is stated more specifically in ch. 2 of the text, but this is the foundational principle with which Paul boldly proclaims Christian freedom. There is nothing else that is necessary for salvation such as good works or rituals. Without Christ’s total capacity to save, Paul could not confidently command the Galatians to ignore the necessity of circumcision or to seek justification in the law. By knowing that Christ is enough, Paul does not have to be like his religious recipients in Galatia who hopelessly sought after righteousness in themselves with no direction other than their own misguided opinions. Paul confidently points them to Christ, who is the only means of salvation. It is in light of this necessary truth that all other theological principles from the text must be understood. The heart of the text is that anything that is depended upon for salvation beyond Christ must be cast off.

Ch' ch' ch' changes...

As you can see, I've been working on a few visual changes for the blog... everything should be cleaned up by the end of the weekend.

The Case for Theology & Apologetics (Pt. 2)

For anyone who may have listened to the first portion of The White Horse Inn's case for theology and apologetics, here is the second portion of the program. It is excellent!

http://www.oneplace.com/common/player/oneplace/CustomPlayer.asp?bcd=05/11/2008&url=http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/swn/oneplace/wm/wi/wi20080511.wax&MinTitle=White+Horse+Inn&MinURL=http://www.oneplace.comhttp://www.oneplace.com/ministries/the_white_horse_inn/&MinArchives=http://www.oneplace.comhttp://www.oneplace.com/ministries/the_white_horse_inn/archives.asp&Refresh=&AdsCategory=MINISTRY.WI&Show_ID=26

Durham Bulls...Bull Durham

So Megan and I will be off to see our first Durham Bulls game tonight. It's "WakeMed night" for the Bulls, so we'll be getting a ticket and t-shirt for a discounted rate. It should be a good time, but my only regret is that we won't be in the old Bulls stadium so I could relive many of the great moments from the movie, "Bull Durham." Here's just one clip for it...

God is Enough

Patrick posted this over on his blog (see J.P. Harmon on the links to the right). I had heard of this clip, but never took the time to look it up. It amazes me that I came across this just after speaking this week in New Testament about Christ's sufficiency and exclusivity in light of Galatians 5:1-6. John Piper sums it up well here... God is enough.

Mexico...

It looks like I'll be returning to Mexico at least once (and possibly twice) in the next year! Please be in prayer as we try to discern how and when we should head south of the border to minister to the Mexican people.

Off to Richmond...

Megan and I are off to Richmond for the weekend for Mother's Day. We haven't been back since Christmas, so we're looking forward to heading north on 85...

The Case for Theology & Apologetics (Pt. 1)

I've been listening to "The White Horse Inn" recently. It's a half-hour, roundtable discussion that comes on weekly. Their most recent broadcast featured, "The Case for Theology & Apologetics (Pt.1)." I would highly recommend listening to it and a link is given below. This, along with reading Him We Proclaim, has left me thinking increasingly about about the role of both theology and apologetics while preaching. As I work through it, I'll post more, but it's definitely been on my mind the last couple of weeks...

http://www.whitehorseinn.org/

http://www.oneplace.com/common/player/oneplace/CustomPlayer.asp?bcd=05/04/2008&url=http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/swn/oneplace/wm/wi/wi20080504.wax&MinTitle=White+Horse+Inn&MinURL=http://www.oneplace.comhttp://www.oneplace.com/ministries/the_white_horse_inn/&MinArchives=http://www.oneplace.comhttp://www.oneplace.com/ministries/the_white_horse_inn/archives.asp&Refresh=&AdsCategory=MINISTRY.WI&Show_ID=26

And I Didn't Even Scratch the Surface...

I haven't posted recently because I had a substantial amount of work due for New Testament today. I've come to realize that one of the top five feelings in the world is returning all the books you use for a term paper back to the library.

This is not meant as a complaint though. I loved writing on Galatians 5:1-6 and am looking forward to presenting the paper next Wednesday. I realize more and more how amazing the Bible is. I wrote fifteen pages on seven verses and feel like there was much I had to leave out. I hope to give my life to studying the text and learning the Word, and don't think I'll ever really be able to scratch the surface.